Balling my eyes out, pounding my fists on the floor and heart palpitations. This was the embarrassing scene of just one of my breakdowns. It was another day of feeling like shit. Feeling like I wanted to sleep the day away and cry a thousand more tears. I had many moments like this when I was constantly fatigued and not able to control my own moods. 

I felt like a prisoner in my body- just there to go along with whatever it decided to give to me. My doctor was no help either. While I was pleased she did do a little testing, when everything came back “normal” and all she could say was “some people are just tired”, I felt like I was trapped for life.

Not being one to take things lying down, I started doing some research. What were some causes of fatigue? Did any of them match the way I was feeling?

At first I didn’t figure out exactly the physiological cause of my fatigue, I did stumble across several foods in my journey that improved my energy levels immensely. I became obsessed with eating these foods as often as possible. I even bought a couple of them in huge bulk online!

The change was like night and day. When I regularly used these foods, I wasn’t so tired anymore. I could get through the day without a nap or a crash at 3PM. I could be around people without becoming snippy, irritable and just plain embarrassing myself with my moods. 

These 7 foods are such an obsession, I have to share them with you today. Because I don’t want you to be tired all the time either. I want you to actually enjoy and participate in your life. 

All of these foods are featured heavily in the recipes of my upcoming 28-Day Fatigue-Fighting Meal Plan for Moody Women, and can be incorporated easily into your life. Let’s dive in!

7 Foods I Became Obsessed With To Fight Fatigue

Chia Seeds

Chia seeds are basically flavourless and super easy to use. They originated in Mexico, where the Aztecs used them to boost both energy and endurance. Chia seeds are extremely high in fibre, providing about 11g per ounce! This is a huge help to your digestive system, which if under-functioning, can contribute to fatigue. Fibre helps to bind and excrete toxins through your bowels, allowing fatigue-inducing sludge to leave the body. This fibre can even help curb appetite, making them fantastic for weight loss- extra weight being another contributor to fatigue. 

If you’re inflamed and have hormonal imbalances, you’re more likely to be chronically tired. Chia seeds are highly anti-inflammatory and full of omega-3 fatty-acids, those hormone-helping, mood-balancing and energy-boosting fats.

Chia seeds also balance blood sugar. If you know anything about me, you know I L-O-V-E to talk about the connection between our blood sugar balance and physical symptoms. Insulin and blood sugar are involved in basically every aspect of our bodies and health, and keeping it under control is important. Have you ever felt ‘hangry’ between meals? What about some energy crashes around 10AM and 3PM? These are all indicators that your blood sugar balance isn’t working so well. Using chia seeds can help balance this important function, giving your more energy and potentially mellowing out our moods. 

Check out this easy Chia Pudding recipe to get started using these little nutrition powerhouses. 

Walnuts

Like chia seeds, walnuts have been used for thousands of years to support human nutrition. In fact, they’re one of the highest plant-based sources of omega-3s! Omega-3s have been researched time and again to show that they boost our mood. They will also reduce inflammation, improve memory, thought processing, circulation and blood sugar control. 

Walnuts are also high in many other nutrients including folate (needed for healthy hormones and iron levels- both important for lasting energy), biotin for healthy hair and blood sugar, as well as high levels of vitamin E (a potent antioxidant). 

When you crack a walnut out of the shell, the nut often has a thin, paper-like skin. Don’t take this off! Many of the nutrients are stored here. 

Salmon

Salmon is one of my favourite animal sources of nutrients. As long as you’re getting good quality salmon (conventional farmed salmon is not a good idea but wild or organic is), you’ll reap the benefits of this healthful fish. Salmon contains very high levels if vitamin B12, a nutrient required for energy production. 

Salmon, like chia and walnuts above, is high in omega-3s (noticing a pattern here?). Highly anti-inflammatory, mood-boosting and blood sugar-balancing, omega-3s are extremely effective in fighting fatigue.

Salmon is also supportive to your thyroid gland- the seat of your metabolism. With all the b12, selenium, iodine and vitamin D salmon contains, it could help us rescue our metabolisms. 

Check out this delicious de-bloating salmon recipe (using greens and avocados too!) to get started using these foods. 

Spinach

An indispensable leafy green veggie in my opinion, spinach has a lot to offer when it comes to fighting fatigue. Spinach (and other foods in the Amaranthaceae family) have been shown to protect the central nervous system and reduce inflammation. Both good news for our moods and levels of fatigue. 

With only 7 calories per cup, spinach contains large amounts of folate, vitamin C, iron and magnesium- all important nutrients for fighting fatigue. The anti-inflammatory properties, fibre and high levels of nutrients means spinach will assist our bodies to detoxify properly. When we have loads of toxins in our bodies, we become sluggish and fatigued. Gently assisting detoxification (like our liver and bowels) with foods like spinach could help us fight fatigue faster. 

Mushrooms

Perhaps this food is a surprise on the list. Mushrooms in my opinion aren’t given enough love. Sure, there’s “superfood” mushrooms out there like reishi and chaga which we can get in powder and capsule form. But even mushrooms from the grocery store have loads of fatigue-fighting and mood-mellowing nutrients. 

Specifically, mushrooms like crimini and shiitake are high in B vitamins. The entire B vitamin family is needed in the creation of energy in our bodies. B vitamins like B12, B5 and B6 are also important nutrients for supporting healthy moods and hormone balance. Specifically B5 supports our adrenal glands, two little glands that regulate our entire stress response, and are intricately involved in how tired or energized we feel. 

Shiitake mushrooms have also been shown in a study to support healthy weight by preventing body weight gain and fat deposition. We can thank the beta-glucan they contain for this benefit!

Mushrooms like shiitake and crimini are also highly anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, making them great immune system support. 

Sweet Potatoes

My favourite high-nutrient starch, sweet potatoes are both nutritious and delicious. There are many fatigue-fighting nutrients in sweet potatoes, including B6, potassium and vitamin C and A (beta-carotene). They are also lower on the glycemic index than other starches (like white potatoes), making them a better choice for blood sugar support. 

Sweet potatoes are also high in fibre, and this supports healthy bowels, detoxification and blood sugar balance. They’re even useful for weight loss, and coming to a healthy, sustainable weight goes a long way in fighting-fatigue. 

The extremely high amounts of vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene) that sweet potatoes contain is anti-inflammatory, immune-supportive and hormone-balancing. 

Plus, they’re just SO delicious and comforting!

Avocados

Last on the list but no less nutrient-dense than the above foods, I’m totally obsessed with avocados. And I don’t even like them all that much! Well, you won’t find me eating plain chunks of avocado, I can tell you that. 

Avocados are very high in monounsaturated fatty-acids, a type of fat also found in olive oil which supports healthy weight, hormone balance and energy. Along with these fats comes loads of fibre- about 4.6g for a whole avocado! What an easy way to fight-fatigue, improve our digestive systems and balance hormones.

Like mushrooms, avocados are also high in B vitamins, all of which are used in energy production. Avocados are high in fat-soluble vitamins too like A, E and K- many of which are seriously lacking in our diets. 

If you’re experiencing hair loss or poor skin along with your fatigue, use avocados as much as possible to support all of these frustrating symptoms. 

I’m no stranger to struggles with weight loss. I first started dieting and exercising to change my weight when I was 16 years old, although if I had my way I likely would’ve started earlier- even though I was a slim girl, I never saw myself that way. Just because I was one or two pant sizes bigger than the other girls in my class, I thought I was huge. 

I also didn’t have good role models growing up- the women in my family were constantly hating on their bodies and always dieting. I thought that if I didn’t have a flat tummy, toned arms and a “thigh gap”, I was unworthy of being called “beautiful”.

Throughout the next several years, I dieted on an off basically all the time, usually by restricting my fat intake, lowering my calories and doing loads of cardio and attending bootcamp exercises classes at the local rec centre. 

It always worked temporarily, until I was in my early 20s and was diagnosed with PCOS. Calorie counting didn’t work, and when I went back to the treadmill, I gained even MORE weight. I couldn’t understand what the fuck was going on, and I felt like a failure. 

Although doctors and various “experts” over the last several decades have heavily promoted long cardio sessions and hardcore bootcamp classes as being the best for weight loss, this is a total MYTH, and a myth I’m super excited to BUST for you today. 

The Bad Science

First of all, let’s talk science. 

The thought process behind using cardio for weight loss centres around calorie expenditure. For instance, 1 pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. So, if you want to lose 1 pound per week, you need to burn an extra 500 calories per day according to this theory. 

Doctors and others may suggest that doing an hour on the treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike daily with some calorie restriction on your food will get you there. But what happens at the end of the week when you’ve burned all these calories and the scale still doesn’t budge?

Part of this has to do with heart rate. When you do cardio, it’s at a steady pace for the entire time. Generally, this is inefficient at burning fat, as variations in heart rate (like in High-Intensity Interval Training) become more effective partly by “keeping your body guessing” and putting yourself into that fat burning zone. 

Also, doing long, drawn out cardio often leaves us tired and hungry. So we eat more. Or, if we have the willpower to stick with the 1,200 calories a day we’ve chosen for our weight loss diet, we aren’t giving our bodies the proper fuel to recover from this exercise, which creates a mess in your body. We’ll talk about this more in the next section. 

Your Body On Cardio and Bootcamps

To help you understand WHY these forms of exercise are inefficient for weight loss, you must understand HOW your body reacts when you participate in these activities. 

For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to use jogging as an example. 

You go out for a run, hoping to shed those pounds. You slowly work your way up to longer and longer distances. 

As you are running, a stress reaction starts in your body. Cortisol, your main stress hormone, is released. While this is a good thing if you’re literally running for your life, chronically high levels of cortisol (i.e.: from long distance running), tells your body to make and release more sugar into the blood so your body can make more energy. 

Higher levels of blood sugar is one of the simplest ways your body packs on the pounds. Plus, this leaves you feeling ravenous. The sugar and carb cravings will be yelling at you and guess what- you’ll likely eat and average of 100 more calories after you’re done than you burned off during the exercise!

Additionally, doing this type of exercise (or other cardio and bootcamps), causes your body to burn muscle instead of fat. Less lean muscle mass slows your metabolism, and it becomes even harder to burn those calories to get the weight off. Plus, you’ll become weaker, more tired and more irritable. And your hormones will start screaming at you. 

High levels of cortisol and imbalanced blood sugar mean hormonal hell. Your body steals building blocks (like pregnenolone and progesterone) to make more cortisol, leaving you deficient in progesterone. Low progesterone isn’t able to keep estrogen in check, so estrogen dominance can result. 

Estrogen dominance then starts a STORM in your body of weight gain- especially in the hips, thighs, belly and back- and moodiness, anxiety, depression and of course- bad periods. 

Many women with hormonal imbalances with estrogen dominance at the root (like PCOS, Endometriosis, PMS, and heavy, painful or irregular periods) feel the worst when they do cardio and bootcamps because it increases their symptoms- even if during the exercise they feel fabulous. 

You can read more about Estrogen Dominance to see if this hormonal imbalance is part of your inability to lose weight and improve your emotional state by clicking here. 

What Can Be Done Instead

So that’s all great- but what can you actually do to effectively burn fat without losing muscle and creating hormonal imbalances?

First, correct your hormonal imbalances with food. 

You cannot out-exercise a bad diet ladies.

It’s just not possible. No matter how long you stay on that treadmill or how many bootcamp classes you attend, if you’re scarfing down a bagel for breakfast and eating take out for dinner every night, the scale is going to climb. 

Second, switch your exercise to the fat-burning kind. The de-stressor kind. Think High-Intensity Interval Training for 20-30 minutes max, and some yoga to balance it out.

There are so many different reasons our bodies may be suffering, trying to figure it all out can be dizzying. Hormone imbalance is really a hot topic these days in the wellness sphere, and for good reason. 

Millions of women everywhere are suffering needlessly with hormonal imbalances. Busy, stressful lives, widespread toxicity, poor diet and sedentary lifestyle are contributing to these imbalances which seem to plague us. 

As you may be aware, I have hormonal imbalances myself. I have PCOS as well as an underactive thyroid gland. I deal with adrenal insufficiency as well. All of these issues seem to be connected, and the hormone estrogen is one of those connections. 

If you’re struggling with weight gain in the hips, thighs, belly and back, or are dealing with mood problems and bad periods, I urge you to read on. What you will discover may be the lightbulb moment you need to begin taking targeted and natural action to smooth your symptoms and allow you to LIVE again. 

What Is Estrogen Dominance?

First of all, let’s get this out of the way. Educating yourself about WHAT is going on in your body and WHY (this comes below) will give you the direction you need to keep going. 

Estrogen dominance is a term that’s become quite popular, but many don’t truly understand what it means. Often we think “dominance” must mean too much, but this is not the case.

Estrogen dominance is simply an imbalance in the ratio of estrogen to progesterone, in favour of estrogen. This could mean that:

(1) You have excessively high levels of estrogen

(2) You have normal estrogen and low progesterone

(3) You have low estrogen and extremely low progesterone

Therefore, it is possible for women of all ages (even through and beyond menopause) to be estrogen dominant. There are 3 main estrogens, (1) estradiol, (2) estriol and (3) estrone. For the purposes of this article, I’m talking about estradiol- the estrogen that is most important throughout our lifespan. On the flip side, estriol is highest in pregnancy, and estrone becomes the dominant estrogen post-menopause. 

What Are The Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance?

There are so many different symptoms or complaints of estrogen dominance, and I’ll outline them below based on the 3 possible variations of estrogen dominance we discussed above. 

(1) Excessively high levels of estrogen and low progesterone

• Sore, swollen and tender breasts
• Breast growth beyond puberty
• Swelling in the hands/fingers, legs and ankles
• Menstrual cramps
• Heavy menstrual flow
• Impatience 
• Being called “too bossy”

(2) Normal to high estrogen and low progesterone

• Absent periods
• Irregular periods
• Menstrual flow clotting
• Sore, tender breasts
• Water retention/swelling
• Fibrocystic breasts
• Fibroids
• Endometriosis 

(3) Low estrogen and extremely low progesterone

• Memory loss
• Depression 
• Hot flashes or night sweats
• Vaginal dryness
• Low libido
• Chronic fatigue
• Insomnia
• Sagging breasts
• Quick weight gain
• Bloating 
• Absent or irregular periods

Other, more general symptoms and signs of estrogen dominance include:

• Accelerated aging
• Hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) – feeling “hangry” between meals
• Premenopausal bone loss
• Thyroid dysfunction
• Uterine cancer and fibroids
• Breast cancer
• PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)
• Ovarian cysts
• Anovulation 
• Low progesterone and/or luteal phase defect
• Cervical dysplasia
• Hair loss
• infertility
• irritability
• Mood swings
• PMS or PMDD
• Sluggish metabolism
• Fat deposition in the hips, thighs, belly and back
• Gallbladder disease

How You Get Estrogen Dominance

So how did we get here? What happened in our lives that brought on estrogen dominance and all these bothersome symptoms?

Toxicity 

First and foremost, we must chat about toxicity. There are infinite sources of toxicity in our environment, and we cannot escape it. This sometimes makes us feel like giving up- because if we don’t have control, what’s the point? The truth is we do have control.

The main sources of toxicity we can’t control are:

• Air pollution
• Use of chemicals in clothing, furniture, cars, etc

Sources of toxicity we can control:

• Food and water
• Household cleaning products
• Indoor air environment
• Makeup
• Personal care products such as deodorant and shampoo

As you can see, a lot of the control is in our hands. This is really important, as toxins can disrupt proper estrogen and hormone metabolism (endocrine disruptors) contributing to any or all of the symptoms listed above. 

Specifically, it’s important to watch out for xenoestrogens, man-made estrogens found in many places, including:

• Commercially-raised meat and dairy products like chicken, beef, pork, and all dairy
• Non-organic foods with high levels of insecticides and pesticides
• Tap water
• Shampoos, lotions, soaps, toothpastes, cosmetics, deodorants, etc
• Soft plastics (BPA is a popular xenoestrogen here)
• Artificial food additives, including artificial sweeteners and MSG
• Non-organic soy and soy derivatives like soy protein isolate
• Dryer sheets
• Birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
• Disposable menstrual products like tampons and sanitary pads

The problem with these xenoestrogens is that they mimic the function of our natural estrogen, but in a much stronger or more powerful way. Beyond giving our bodies too much estrogen, they will also disrupt that delicate estrogen-progesterone ratio, the definition of estrogen dominance. 

Poor Diet

Diet is one of those areas where we do have control, and ignoring this is detrimental to our health. As you can see from the above list, five of the ten sources of xenoestrogens mentioned are food-based. 

This makes logical sense then that dietary xenoestrogens are contributing to estrogen dominance. You can also see that these foods aren’t healthy choices either, so eliminating them from your diet is the easiest way to ditch 50% of the xenoestrogens you come into contact with. 

Beyond dietary xenoestrogens, other dietary problems can contribute. For example, if you eat a diet high in refined carbs (think bagels, bread, muffins, noodles, donuts, crackers, etc), your blood sugar and insulin balance will be upset. 

When this happens, insulin messes with your ovaries, changing up estrogen and progesterone balance. Additionally, insulin resistance and blood sugar imbalance create more opportunity for your body to store extra fat and to be anxious, depressed, irritable or down right moody. 

Birth Control and Hormone Replacement Therapy

Medications are another branch of toxicity worth it’s own section. Many women today are on some form of hormones birth control, like the pill, shot, IUD or patch. Other peri- and post-menopausal women are given synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT). 

All of these drugs push high amounts of synthetic estrogen into your body. Because the lab-made estrogen doesn’t look or at the exact way our natural estrogen does, it often binds to receptors first and has the same powerful and harmful action as other xenoestrogens. When women using hormonal birth control pee, the hormones are left in the water system, ending up in tap water. Local filtration systems just aren’t enough to remove the hormones from the water. 

The good news is that there are many non-drug ways to have contraception, or hormone support, depending on your needs. For example, the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) can be used to prevent pregnancy or enhance fertility, depending on your goals. 

Estrogen Dominance and Weight Gain

So what’s the connection between having estrogen dominance and weight gain? It’s pretty simple. 

Estrogen is partly responsible for keeping our metabolisms in good shape. It also helps to maintain fat loss in proper levels. Having too much can slow metabolism, as can having too little. So, you’re more apt to gain weight, especially in the hips, thighs and back, as well as the belly. You might notice you started out as a pear shape, and have gained weight and now have an apple shape, with much of your weight in the belly area as time goes on. 

Beyond this, estrogen dominance negatively interferes with thyroid hormone. The thyroid is the main controller of our metabolism, and of estrogen dominance is slowing our thyroid, our metabolism will slow and we will gain weight. 

Many women with estrogen dominance also have some level of thyroid dysfunction. 

Estrogen Dominance and Mood Problems

Beyond weight gain, mood disturbances are a big light bulb that estrogen dominance may be contributing to your issues. 

When estrogen is in balance, we feel sexy, strong, confident and ready to take on the world. We are uplifted and pleasant to be around. 

When estrogen dominates over progesterone, this can lead to anxiety (progesterone is a calming hormones) and depression, which may be seen even with low estrogen levels. 

Additionally, excess estrogen may have you feeling super irritable, or people may begin calling you bossy because of the way you act. 

These things don’t have to be cause for using anti-depressants, but rather are a signal to bring estrogen and progesterone into balance naturally to restore your moods. 

Estrogen Dominance and Painful, Heavy and Irregular Periods

Another big sign of estrogen dominance is period issues. Specifically, heavy, painful and/or irregular periods.

Having too much estrogen in relation to progesterone can stall or halt ovulation altogether. No ovulation = no period. 

Excessive estrogen also builds up the lining of the uterus more than normal, and often results in heavy periods accompanied by clotting. Pain and menstrual cramping may also be severe with estrogen dominance.
 
 

Cleansing and Detoxing are often thought of as “fads” and to some unnecessary because our organs are made to filter themselves all the time! But in this era we live in people are constantly taking in toxins and other nasty stuff that our bodies are not used to dealing with. The processed foods, unnatural body care products and pollution we encounter is new to us as a species.
 

Our bodies are not designed to filter these types of toxins so they accumulate- which is bad news for us and our hormones! Without being able to excrete excess hormones they build up, and that is bad news!
 

Where Do Toxins Come From?

Food + Water

Firstly, our food and water bring in many toxins. Eating foods that come in boxes, bags and cartons means they have been processed. Most all processed foods shouldn’t really be called foods at all because they contain so few real (like- from the ground) ingredients and mostly chemicals to make them taste, look, smell and feel like food. I’m looking at you- frozen meals, crackers and breakfast cereals!

To add insult to injury, our water is often contaminated with the hormones that women on hormonal birth control pee into our water systems, plus things like fluoride, pesticides and possibly heavy metals.
 

Pollution

Pollution is everywhere. From the air we breath to the sites we see to the people we spend time with. For the purposes of this article, I’m talking about air pollution. There is no limit to the number of chemicals that are pumped into our air and waterways everyday. What’s in our water eventually ends up being evaporated and rained down on us, putting it further into the air and our lives. Large cities tend to have the highest concentrations of this air pollution.
 

Personal Environment

Let’s do a quick definition here. By personal environment, I mean all of these:

• indoor air quality
• cleanliness of the indoor environment (get out your duster!)
• personal care products like deodorant, toothpaste, makeup, menstrual hygiene products, shampoo, conditioner and anything else you put on your body
• household cleaning products like laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, window washing fluid, furniture polish, and everything in between

5 Rejuvenating Herbs to Detox Your Liver and Balance Your Hormones

#1 Dandelion Root

A very popular herb for both the liver and the kidneys, dandelion is more than just a weed. The root has an affinity for the liver, whereas the leaf likes the kidneys, so for the purposes of this article, I’ll be referring mostly to dandelion root.

Some of the helpful actions of dandelion root include being a bitter tonic, an alternative, and cholagogue. All of this to mean that dandelion root helps your liver and gallbladder to function well, including producing and secreting bile as necessary, and it helps overall digestion and detoxification.

Dandelion root is useful in many symptoms of a toxic body, including:

• Acne
• PMS
• Fibrocystic breasts
• Nausea
• Estrogen Dominance (is this your Hormone Quiz result?)
• Bloating, gas or other digestive issues- especially after eating a heavy meal
• Brain fog, poor short-term memory
• Moodiness, hostility and being quick to anger
• Dandruff, itchy skin and scalp
• Constipation or diarrhea

Dandelion is often combined with other liver-loving and hormone-supporting herbs for best results, as I have done in Detox Tea.

#2 Burdock Root

Burdock, a plant very common around North America, could be hiding in your backyard or local walking trail! It’s the roots of this plant that are used, and burdock pairs especially well with dandelion, yellow dock and milk thistle to cleanse the liver and also to clear skin.

Burdock root is an alterative, diuretic and a bitter. This means that like dandelion root, burdock root helps to cleanse the blood (and clear up skin), and stimulate healthy digestion and detoxification to keep hormones and health optimal.

#3 Yellow Dock

Another root used for helping liver function and detoxification, yellow dock is often harvested from August to October.

It is also a blood-cleansing alterative, making it great for skin issues like acne. It also has the action of stimulating liver and gallbladder function, including production and release of fat-digesting bile.

#4 Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a favourite herb of mine for many health and hormonal issues, and I often recommend it to private clients and the women in my 21-Day Happy Hormones Diet program. You can read more about the menstrual-specific benefits of cinnamon here. 

Cinnamon is a fantastic anti-nauseant, antispasmodic, carminative (anti-gas), uterine anti-hemorrhagic (slows heavy flow) and warming uterine stimulant.

Cinnamon adds beautiful chai-like flavour to my Detox Tea and also serves medicinal purpose. The entire purpose of the Detox Tea is to help women with Estrogen Dominance (take the Quiz to see if this is you) support their hormones and liver to metabolize and detoxify exogenous estrogens properly.

It’s antimicrobial and antiviral properties will also help get rid of pathogens (like candida and parasites) that may be living in your gut, slowing down liver function and creating hormone hell.

#5 Milk Thistle

Last but not least on this list is Milk Thistle. One of the safest liver-cleansing herbs, milk thistle has been used for thousands of years to support liver health. Milk thistle is a tonic to the liver, helping it to rebuild and regenerate this important organ.
 
It makes an important addition in my Detox Tea as it combines really well with the other herbs and provides a supportive, regenerating action that some of the other liver herbs in the Detox Tea do not.